NORTH SEVIER, GREEN RIVER FAVORITES AS 2A, 1A TOURNEYS BEGIN

Utah's 1990-91 boys prep basketball season concludes this week with a double-dip of a send-off - the simultaneous running of the 2A and 1A state tournaments.

The 2A and 1A tournaments have run concurrently for a couple of seasons now - but never at such a closeness of proximity. This year, the 2A event will be hosted by Dixie College, with the Dixie Center used as a first-time site for a high school tournament. The 1A tournament in turn takes over at Southern Utah University's Centrum Arena in Cedar City, which has been the 2A site for the past two years.Both tournaments begin play on Wednesday. Schedules for first-round and quarterfinal games for both tournaments can be found in the Scoreboard on D4.

North Sevier and Green River enter the two state playoffs as the favored teams, according to the final 1991 Deseret News Coaches Poll.

In the Region 9 playoffs, Juab upset regular-season champion South Summit in the title game to gain the league's top berth.

Green River has stayed atop the 1A rankings for the final third of the regular season. Green River went undefeated during divisional play in Region 13 and easily won the league playoff. Piute rose to the top of Region 12 not only in regular-season competition but in the league tournament as well. And in Region 11, Dugway and North Summit outlasted the regular season and two- weekend inter-division playoffs to finish 1-2 in Region 11.

Just as notable is who's not in this year's tournaments. Failing to make the state-playoff field are former state champion schools like Richfield, Enterprise and Duchesne. Richfield had won three 2A crowns during the 1980s, while Enterprise had mirrored the accomplishment in the 1A ranks during the same time period. Duchesne earned a 1A title just two years ago.

2A tournament

Since there are only 18 2A schools in the state, the 2A tournament is pared down to a 12-team field, with 6 teams each advancing from Regions 9 and 10.

The two top-seeded teams from both leagues earn a first-day bye Wednesday and face first-round winners in Thursday's quarterfinals.

That means that North Sevier (19-3), San Juan (19-2), Juab (15-6), and South Summit (18-4) wait an extra day before beginning play.

The 1A playoff continues to be a 16-team format, with seven participants from Region 11, five from Region 12 and four from Region 13. Similar to the 2A tournament seeding, the seeding of all the 1A representatives was based on last week's league tournaments - and there were a few surprise finishes in the three region playoffs.

The result is some interesting first-round pairings Wednesday - like 15-7 North Summit facing 14-7 Tabiona, 19-2 Green River meeting 14-8 ICS, and 18-3 Dugway squaring off against 13-8 Parowan.